Friday: What a great week with this class! Today was a busy day of wrapping up some unit work with a pop quiz in bible and a test in Heritage. THANK you for sending flash drives for the students to save science research paper work. They can be working on it at home. The deadline on the Bibliography page has been extended. We will work on this page on Monday. ROUGH drafts of science fair research papers DUE on Wednesday next week. Other than research paper work, there is no homework for the weekend! ENJOY the beautiful weather if it gets to us!

Wednesday / Thursday: Hello, parents! The good news of the day is that I’ve learned to use and update this page! Here is a recap of the last 2 days. During Bell work, we are practicing using synonyms to make our writing stronger. We finished up our Bible Unit today with the story out of Mathew of the landowner and the workers in his Vineyard. Tomorrow we will do a class review and go over the unit together. There will be a pop quiz. In Language Arts, our work on Johnny Tremain is wrapping up. Today we reviewed Chpts 8-11 and did a fun lesson on foreshadowing. We’ve also wrapped up our Heritage Unit on the Roaring 20’s and on Recession / Inflation. The students did a study guide in partners. We went over them together in class. There is a TEST tomorrow. They have their study guides in their homework folders. In science, we continue to work on typing up our rough drafts. If you want your son / daughter to be able to type and edit over the weekend, please send a flash-drive tomorrow so they can save their work to access at home.

Homework: STUDY for Heritage test.

Bible Journal Writing: 1 page journal entry on how we label each other and what labels we’ve given each other (this goes along with our unit lesson from today).

Thanks for being patient while I learn the new system! Let me know if there are any questions or concerns.

Monday: For bell work, the students work a sentence using 5 of the 8 parts of speech. We are getting good at this because it was a breeze for most of the class. During language arts, we had Annie read sections 1-2 of chapter 11 and then finished section 3 on our own. We are cruising through the chapter and will finish it tomorrow. At grammar mini, the kids went over how to write a bibliography. We practiced with a book in the class. On our bibliography for the science fair research paper, I allow the kids to use Easybib.com, which generates citations for you. It’s great to know how to write a proper citation, but no one memorizes the formula for writing a correct MLA citation (especially because it changes for websites, books with one author, books with two authors, encyclopedias, newspapers, etc)! Easybib guarantees accuracy, we prevent accidental plagiarism, no one tears their hair out, and it gets us familiar with a site you’ll want to use again if you ever need a bibliography. Then in Heritage, we played an inflation game. We wrapped up the day by playing a science study game.

Thursday: Today we worked on learning to avoid and identify run on sentences and sentence fragments. After that lesson, we worked on our bibliography pages for science fair research papers. We also had the chance to do some editing / typing / adding the bibliography work to the rough drafts that were due today. All of the rough drafts have been emailed to Mrs. Hicks so she can look them over this weekend (except for the students who were not here today). Other than continued work on science fair, there is no homework this weekend. Study for spelling. Tests are Tuesday. Spelling homework is also due on Tuesdays. ENJOY the beautiful weather if it gets to us!

Wednesday / Thursday: The good news of the day is that I’ve learned how to use / update this page! Thank you for being patient while I learn. Here is a recap of the last two days. We finished up a lesson on adverbs / adverbial phrases yesterday. Today, we learned about comma splicing in our writing. The students were encouraged to edit their rough drafts for Science Fair using what they’ve learned from these lessons.

Homework: Rough drafts DUE tomorrow. They must be a minimum of 500 words.

Monday: The kids didn’t finish a worksheet from Friday and had questions on it, so we worked through it together. We also started a couple slides of today’s PowerPoint on adverbs. We will finish that slide on Wednesday as we will be working on science fair research tomorrow.

Tuesday: We started talking about how to use quotes in our research papers today. The big idea concepts are we should use transition words after quotes (this means, in other words, specifically, etc) and then explain what the quote means. We will finish working on this tomorrow. We also took a spelling test and turned in spelling homework.

Wednesday: The kids finished up the PowerPoint from yesterday and student pages. We went over our new spelling list (the last list from our spelling bee sheets).

Thursday: Today, we talked about topic sentences and then went out the computer lab to work on typing.

Monday: No school! I looked this up over the weekend, and did you know that in Minnesota the holiday is called Washington’s and Lincoln’s Birthday? I stumbled upon that as I was looking to see where the apostrophe went in the holiday. Is it President’s (and we celebrate just Washington) or is it Presidents’ (and we celebrate all who have served)? Come to find out, the states are slightly different in what they officially call it!

Tuesday: We started this morning with bell work on inferences. One of my favorite inferences this morning was a Far Side comic (that says, “If we pull this off, we’ll eat like kings.”

For Bible, we did the workbook page to accompany last week’s lesson on the lepers thanking Jesus. During language arts, we started a new chapter (chapter 9). We just read sections 1-2 in class together and will finish reading and the packet tomorrow. We also took our spelling test today and turned in spelling homework. In the afternoon, the kids lucked out on a half hour longer gym class (we had a very gracious sub, hehe!). We talked through how each paragraph in an essay needs a topic sentence and how to use transition words between paragraphs. Then we went out to the computer lab to practice our new skills in our typing on our research papers.

Homework: Due tomorrow is bell work on inferences if not finished and Bible worksheet 55-56 if not finished. There will be a Bible memory quiz on Ephesians 4:29 tomorrow as well

Wednesday: Mrs. Jacksen taught the kiddos today.

Thursday: This morning, our bell work was to write in our log books. Things we added were what we’re learning from research, any changes we’ve had so far (if you changed or added a material, make note of that. The judges like to hear about how you adapted your thinking in the process), and any other updates. During Bible, we talked about how Jesus often spoke in parables. The class split into two groups to teach each other their parable. During language arts, we read sections 1-2 of chapter 10 and filled out pages 2-3 of our packets. The kids had the option of doing this work in a partner group. For grammar mini’s writing time, the kids made a web for a subject they feel like they’re an expert on (some kids did a sport they participate in, their church, or their family). We walked through how to make the subtopics on the web into topic sentences for each paragraph. Lastly, we went out to the computer lab to work on science fair research.

Homework: Paragraph 3 of our science fair research is due tomorrow and the 4 paragraph (16 sentence minimum) topic sentence writing is due tomorrow

Monday: This morning we warmed up by taking turns identifying appositives (something we’ve been studying the past couple weeks) on the whiteboard. We then took notes on parts of speech to review and practiced identifying parts of speech in Valentine’s Day sentences. See handout here: valentinesdayfreebiepracticingpartsofspeech. For our main activity, we read the short story “Appointment with Love” and answered questions on it.

Tuesday: We took a spelling test and a pop quiz on the short story “Appointment with Love.” We watched two film versions of the story and critiqued it for its accuracy in setting, plot, and for how believable it was. This is always a fun activity because, believe it or not, viewing and analyzing a film version of a story is a state standard! You can see the short film below. One thing it can get us thinking about is how difficult it might be to create a period piece (there are a lot of details that need to be changed to reflect a different age).

Note: Tomorrow we will be writing! We’ll take the theme from “Appointment with Love” and write our own short stories.

Wednesday: Our new spelling list is from spelling bee words #34-44. Remember that we have Monday off next week, so right away on our first day back, spelling homework is due and we will be taking a test. Our main activity today was to write a 2 page short story. The kids could write about any topic, but it has to follow the same theme as “Appointment with Love” which is “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Many students finished in class today; those who did not had time to work on it at library.

Homework: Short stories are due tomorrow (Feb 16th), spelling homework on the 21st over spelling bee words #34-44, and the spelling bee will be next Friday!

Thursday: We had a sub today, the students went to the computer lab to do research.

Friday: We went out the computer lab and helped each other edit our writing for our research papers. When finished, the kids were able to continue their research.

Monday: This morning the students received information on Skate-a-Thon at assembly. You should see packets coming home tonight. It’s 3 weeks away, but if you’re mailing any, I would try to get them out as soon as possible so that donations can be totaled before we skate. The class with the most money in pledges will receive a special lunch!

For bell work, we worked on Valentine’s Day idioms: valentineidioms. Then during grammar mini, we selected one idiom to make a poster one (we wrote the idiom, it’s meaning, and drew an illustration to represent it). For language arts, we went over some of the questions students had trouble with on the chapter 7 packet. Then we read sections 1-2 of chapter 8 together, completing page 1-2 of the new packet. We also did Monday’s work of our mentor text where we practiced underlining titles of books, putting articles in quotations, and making a prediction for chapter 8! Later on, we reviewed the steps to research for science fair. Each student was given a handout to guide their computer time, and we spent an hour working on research. This has been difficult for this class (I’m seeing a lot of hunting and pecking when typing), but we’re making progress!

Homework: A couple students didn’t finish their reflections in Bible today. That will be due tomorrow. Language arts pages 1-2 of the chapter 8 packet are due tomorrow. Idiom worksheet and poster are due tomorrow. Remember that we have a spelling test and spelling homework tomorrow as well.

Note: Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! We haven’t received any candy donations for hospital patients. If you would like to participate with that, please remember to bring it in tomorrow (optional)

Tuesday: Happy Valentine’s Day!!

This morning we had our packaging party during Bible class. The kids wrote Valentine cards to hospital patients and stuffed bags of candy. We made 40 bags! I delivered them to the hospital while the kids were at gym class. My mom, who is a nurse at the hospital and working today, said, “The reaction of the patients was priceless. They just absolutely loved them!” We had a little trouble with a giving attitude during this activity, but we pulled through and made a difference to 40 people today. Great job, students!

While we packaged, I brought in a treat to share with the kiddos- watermelon cupcakes (just watermelon, a little topping, and a heart shaped strawberry). I was trying not to contribute to the sugar highs today (hee hee).

When the kids came back from math, we worked on reading chapter 8 by ourselves. We also took a spelling test (awesome scores on that!), did parts of speech for our mentor text, and turned in spelling homework. Please don’t forget to do this weekly homework assignment! In the afternoon, we finished up chapter 8 and the packet for our grammar mini time. We took a pop quiz, and then we went out to the computer lab to work on research. I’m seeing a lot of great progress there. One or two of the kids have reached the halfway point towards the required 500 words. Two paragraphs of the research paper will be due on Friday. I will have the kids email their progress home tomorrow as I hope to get to our regular science curriculum the rest of the week.

Homework: Finish chapter 8 reading and packet if not done in class. Two paragraphs of research are due on Friday. We have our weekly Bible memory verse (John 15:4) that we’ll be tested on tomorrow

Wednesday: Mrs. Jacksen has a sick girl today- pray she gets better!

This morning our chapel speaker talked to us about self-control. He gave us some advice we can use to become better in this area: asking older people for council instead of our peers and waiting a couple days before making a big decision. After chapel, we took our Bible memory verse and finished up bell work. We also analyzed primary sources from the Boston Tea Party. The kids were divided into groups and each looked at a different source (one source was from eyewitness accounts!). They analyzed their source and later met with another group to compare. Our goal was to try and answer the guiding question: “What actually happened at the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773?”. During our library time, I went over to the computer lab and sent home what the kids have been working on. Look for that in your inbox! When we got back from specialty, we looked at our new spelling words (spelling bee list #34-44) and did a mini spelling bee. Congrats to Mariah who came in 1st place on our practice bee today! Lastly, we read about communism. We compared that to capitalize, played a game to simulate communism, and finished with a reflection.

Homework: Primary source packet and bell work are due tomorrow if not finished. 2 paragraphs for science fair are due Friday. Our next memory verse in Bible is Ephesians 2:29 (We will take that on 2/22). Spelling test and homework due next Tuesday.

Note: Spelling bee is next Friday!

Thursday: We had a sub

Friday: This morning we read about leprosy (one of the students shared how armadillos are one of the only animals who carry leprosy and can transfer that to humans! We looked it up and verified that fact- crazy!). We read in Luke about Jesus healing the 10 lepers. Only one came back to thank Jesus, and Jesus said to him, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.” We talked about how the man has already been healed physically, so Jesus’ statement is spiritual in meaning.

We also met our new practicum student from BSU. Her name is Annie, and she will be here 40 hours so we will get to know her well in the coming weeks!

During language arts, we took a mentor text quiz and viewed a PowerPoint on the difference between Whigs and Tories. Whigs believed that Parliament should have more power than the king. The were also pro change and reform. The Whigs eventually became the liberal political group. Tories believed in the divine right of the king and that non-Catholics shouldn’t have the same rights as Catholics. Tories later became the conservative political group. We looked at primary sources and categorized writings about the Tories and Whigs into fact and opinion. This activity will also help us with science fair as we’ve been struggling a little bit in keeping a formal, factual tone in our research papers.

This afternoon, we finished our Whig and Tory work during grammar mini. We read science pages 91-95 and took notes on the 6 kingdoms. We reviewed them together and had a little time left over to finish all homework and get spelling homework completed for thus Tuesday.

This morning we talked through the research we did yesterday on evaluating websites to answer questions we have about our faith. The internet CAN be a great resource when we have tough questions about Christianity, but we do have to be critical in evaluating where the information comes from. We wrapped up the period with going to the computer lab to work on science fair research. We should have one introductory paragraph and two paragraphs of research. Some students are behind and WILL need to make this up at home. You can check our new online grading program to see if your student is behind in this.